Its inauguration was heralded as a long-overdue infrastructure advancement for a metro system founded in 1969, but chronically underfunded and rife with dilapidated infrastructure. Line 12 carried approximately 350,000 passengers daily from semi-rural Tláhuac to a south-central part of the capital. “All this was generated by a lack of maintenance and a lack of proper administration,” he told reporters. Homero Zavala, leader of the metro workers’ union, said four of the lines were “time bombs” due to dilapidated infrastructure.
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“There have been problems since it was inaugurated,” she said, as nearby a crane lifted one of the fallen wagons so it could be hauled away.
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“I always said one day it’s going to collapse,” said Paulina García, 45, a resident of the crash area in the south-eastern Tláhuac borough. Mexican social media resurfaced old tweets and posts from people warning something was amiss with the elevated metro line. It also occurred on Line 12 – the “Golden Line” – which opened to fanfare as a modernization of Mexico City’s metro, but was beset by closures and construction problems. The collapse followed a spate of calamities in the metro, including trains crashing into each other and a fire tearing through the system’s central command centre. Serranía said the collapsed metro line – which was inaugurated in 2012 – was last inspected in January 2020. “We’ve searched all night and nobody knows where he is,” Tapía wailed as she pressed for an answer on the whereabouts of her son Giovani Hernández Tapía, 13.Ī resident reacts as she arrives at the crash site at Los Olivos station in Mexico City on Tuesday. One mother identified as Marisol Tapía interrupted a press conference held on Tuesday morning by an opposition party at the scene of the crash to demand answers.
#OVERPASS COLLAPSE FREE#
I felt like someone who was needed,” Ibarra said from the scene near the Los Olivos metro station.Įmergency medical crews and firefighters worked through the night to free trapped passengers, and 79 people were taken to hospital.įamilies of missing passengers joined in the desperate search at the scene and pleaded for information at overwhelmed hospitals. “I was scared, but I also felt like a hero. Running to the scene he and other bystanders forced open the door and pulled stunned survivors from the wreckage. Adolfo Ángel Ibarra, 21, was travelling on a small bus when he heard the roar of collapsing concrete and turned around to see a cloud of dust. “We were sent flying and hit the ceiling.”īystanders and passersby rushed to pull survivors from the wreck.
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“We only heard a thunderous noise and everything started coming apart,” a survivor identifying herself as Mariana told the newspaper El Universal. Photograph: Julian Lopez/IPA/REX/Shutterstockįootage from security cameras showed the overpass collapsing on to a busy street about 10.30pm on Monday night, leaving one of the wagons dangling precariously.